Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1887-05-13
ANDERSONVILLE.
A Description Of the Prison Site
as it Appears To-Day.


of the prison was a couple of side hills
sloping gently down toward each
other into bog or swamp, through
which ran sluggish stream of water
eight or ten feet wide and about six
inches deep. When this spot was
chosen for prison it was quite heavi.
ly timbered with pine trees. A space
of about twenty acres in extent was
cleared off and securely fenced in
with the timber thus obtained, the
timber being cut twenty-five feet
long and buried five feet in the
ground. The soil was light and
sandy. Only two trees were left stand
ing in the entire enclosure. No place
could have been more inhospitable
and cheerless. The swamp, in which
man would sink to the waist, occu-
pied a considerable portion of the
field, the little stream was brackish
and unpalatable; the absence of shade
trees, which might have been left,
made the pen almost like caldron
ulder the burning southern sun.
To-day the spot presents some
what pleasanter aspect. The side
hills are now farmed, the swamp is
not and will not be for years, until
redeemed by more careful system
of agriculture. After the prison was
abandoned in April, 1865, the place
grew up with second growth timber,
but this has been almost entirely
cleared away, and in it's place in the
proper season are found the products
of Georgia husbandry. The great
towering stockade has almost entire.
ly disappeared; it is only here and
there that single post or little
group of posts is to be seen. These
have not rotted away, but have been
wisely split up into rails to fence off
the farm land Their purpose is not
now to keep in prisoners but to keep
out intruders.
Still, though the heavy, spiked
timbers have been removed, the three
lines of stockade can be distinctly
traced, they are likely to be discerni-
BILE for years to come. The strong
earthworks that the Confederate SOL
diers threw up are still there, hard
and firm; and the rife pits used by
them are still traceable, though %
years have elapsed since they were
dug.
The sluggish little stream, the
Branch as the prisoners called it,
still takes its way across what was
the old inclosure, about third of the
way from the southern boundary of
the stockade 1t is to-day much as
it was in the COS. Its banks are
lined now as then with rank, oozy
ground, still miasmal and disagree
able, but of course, shorn of the fetid,
excremental stencil of war times.
This was the general sink of the
prison, and it's stencil could then be
detected O mile and half away.
Those familiar with the history Of
Andersonville will remember the lit
tie spring, providence Spring" it
was called, because it was a godsend
to the prisoners, that broke forth on
the 18th or 18th of August, 1864, be-
tween the "dead-line" and the stock
ade, not far from the north gate.
Previous to this time the prisoners
got water from the Branch, i" or gen
eral sink. When this spring broke
out, however, Capt Wirz considerate-
ly allowed them to sink barrel and
conduct the water within the "dead
line," and here the prisoners would
stand in line by the hundreds, await
ing their turn to get drink of fresh
water, 1t was the one great blessing
of the pen, and it has meyer ceased to
flow. It's waters bubble forth to-day
as fresh and sparkling as in those
times of suffering. The appearance
of the spring, of course, is changed.
Twenty years of ceaseless flowing
has worked it back little higher up
the hill, since the old barrel which
the prisoners sunk soon disappeared
after the prison was abandoned. 1t
is now some twenty feet of the per-
ceptible outline off the stockade. For
time it was protected by large
pine stump, but it's now surrounded
by neat wood curbing about two
and half feet high, with q semi-cir-
cular opening on the lower side,
through which the water constantly
flows
Before the spring broke forth the
prisoners endeavored to find fresh
water by sinking wells in the hill
sides, but to no avail. Many such
excavations were made, some of them
forty or fifty feet deep. Several of
these are still to be seen, almost as
perfect az when the prisoners dug
them. They are all dry, since what
ever water run into them from the
surface is rapidly absorbed by the
sandy soil. They are a constant
source Of danger, yet the careless hus-
bandry of the south does not fill them
up.
"Of couse the "dead iine," d low
fence eighteen feet from the stockade,
made by mailing four-inch strip of
board on low posts about twenty feet
apart, has wholly disappeared. Not
the slightest trace is left of it, since it
was lightly constructed.
Though more than twenty years
have passed, the burrow or dugouts
of the prisoners are still discernible.
1t is strange what grotesque humor
will crop out in the midst Of suffering.
1t seems as though there is Il law by
which humor asserts itself as a pro-
test against despair from the very
depth of a suffering heart. These
dugouts-mere kennels-were the
boys' "brownstone front" The hill
sides especially on the north slope,
are deeply corrugated. Great wash
outs are to be seen where the prison
era burrows have caved in. 1t will
take long time for the influences of
weather and shiitless farming TO OBJ
literate them. Here and there, also,
is to be seen narrow, long depress-
ion in the ground leading toward the
stockade. These are caused by the
falling in of the earth over the pris-
oners' tunnels, which were excavated
with Il view TO escape. And escape
some $50 Of the men did. Periodi-
A